Bernarnews.org - Authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia are investigating to determine how many of their citizens may have been infected as part of a new of COVID-19 cluster emerging from a mass Muslim event in New Delhi.
More than 350 people who were removed from a religious center where the event took place in mid-March have been hospitalized, and at least 10 attendees have died after being infected with the coronavirus disease, according to an Agence France-Presse report. The Press Trust of India said around 8,000 people took part in the event.
Indonesians and Malaysians reportedly were among those attending the event hosted by the same Muslim missionary organization, Tablighi Jamaat, whose gathering in Malaysia in late February has been linked to hundreds of coronavirus cases in more than half a dozen countries.
“According to information we have, there are 1,456 Indonesian Tablighi members overseas, 731 of whom are in India,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The event in the Indian capital began on March 13, days before Delhi’s chief minister banned gatherings of more than 50 people to prevent the spread of the virus, according to India Today. Hundreds of people refused to leave the building and got trapped inside after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced a three-week nationwide lockdown, which suspended transportation and non-essential movement.
It was not immediately clear whether any Indonesians had attended the New Delhi event or were among those trapped inside the building.
In Malaysia, Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah was asked if his countrymen had attended the gathering in India.
“True. We are investigating,” he told reporters in Putrajaya on Tuesday. “
- bviously there is a high risk for them to attend these gatherings. So we are trying to get more information from our counterpart in India.”
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Topic: Muslim Event in New Delhi Triggers Covid Pandemic (Read 555 times)